Microbial Ecology and Global Health

This special issue of the International Journal of Microbiology focuses on global health. More specifically, our aim is to establish whether there is a role for microbial ecology in global health. " Global health " is often defined as the " health of populations " a problem that transcends geographic boundaries and exists at the intersection of demography, economics, epidemiology, political economy, and sociology. Conspicuously absent from this definition is microbial ecology. Is there, after all, a role for microorganisms in health of populations or is " global health " defined strictly by its human dimensions? We argue that the analyses of the factors that led to the emergence and reemergence of pathogens, expansion of vector-transmitted diseases into the new areas of the planet, and recent zoonotic outbreaks highlight an important role for microbial ecology in the health of human populations. Original research and review articles within this special issue contribute to the scientific scaffolding, upon which the risk assessment and management framework is to be built. Nowhere on this planet are issues of microbial and human ecology more important than in large urban slums. There, humans and microbes do not only intersect, they collide, and the consequences of this collision are often catastrophic. A review by Abraham traces pathogenic, often drug-resistant microbes from inadequate sanitation facilities in megapolises through rivers toward downstream consumers of tainted waters. The review addresses persistence of pathogens in rivers running through the world's major cities, interactions of waterborne pathogens with highly diverse aquatic microbiota, their survival in favorable environmental niches, in biofilms, and in association with amoeba. The author then comments on the utility of indicator organisms in assessing quality of waters in megacities and offers his vision of the pressing research needs for science-based solutions for the water quality and sanitation crisis in the world's urban population centers. A critical review by N. J. Rowan, builds a case for the need to adapt risk assessment and management framework to accommodate viable but nonculturable (VBNC) pathogens. N. J. Rowan's review contains a thoughtful analysis of the methods for the detection and quantification of viable but non-culturable (VBNC) pathogens and Cryptosporidium oocysts, estimating virulence potential of the pathogens in the VBNC state and developing risk assessment models that take into consideration viable but non-culturable as well as drug-resistant pathogens. N. J. Rowan also offers a critical analysis of the efficacy of new water sanitation technologies …